A 70-year-old woman has been waiting for an RDP house for 20 years and is losing hope that she will ever live in it.
Nomvula Elizabeth Dzhivhuho says she has been sent from pillar to post trying to get answers about when she will receive her Reconstruction and Development Programme house.
Dzhivhuho told The Star she had applied in 1997, only to find out a few years later that her name was not on the list.
This she found out when she went to the Department of Housing to enquire about progress.
“In 2005, a housing project was supposed to be built in Evaton West, Beverly Hills, Zone 7, Sebokeng by the construction company called MacLeaf.”
“In 2009, I went back to the department and they took my C form and handed us other documents, but told us not to throw away or lose certain yellow and blue documents.
“I was told they would call me back,” she said.
Much to her shock, Dzhivhuho was told that her application had been cancelled and that she no longer existed on the department’s system.
“We went back to check on how far the process was going, only to find that I was no longer on their system. I was later put on another waiting list, and the previous application no longer appeared on their system.”
Dzhivhuho said she has lived in different shelters for women and children because she is guardian to three grandchildren.
She told The Star that she had now resorted to poor living conditions in a local government communal facility building in Joubert Park.
“I have all this proof but I really don’t know what to do. I am suffering because I don’t have a home. Why am I not helped to get my house when other people are moving into their RDP homes?” asked Dzhivhuho.
City of Joburg’s Siyanda Makhubo told The Star that after much investigation from the housing department (City of Joburg), it was found that the matter was the jurisdiction of the provincial housing department.
In a statement, the Department of Human Settlements spokesperson Keith Khoza said: “According to data extracted from the Demand Database system, recipient Nomvula Elizabeth Dzhivhuho registered in 2009 and updated her information in 2013.”
Khoza added that the department had no records reflected on the housing subsidy system mentioned by Dzhivhuho.
He added that Dzhivhuho’s case was special because she
was an elderly person and therefore, the department, together
with the City of Joburg housing, should have a list of elderly people that they link to whenever there are new developments.
“There is no time frame as to how long one waits on the waiting list. There must be housing developments happening around one’s area in order for one to be called in to apply for a subsidy form through their local municipal office,” said Khoza.
“The Department of Human Settlements has customer support centres for all regions in Gauteng where customers can walk in to log a complaint or phone when they need to check their application or have a general inquiry,” according to Khoza.
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